Finding True Happiness On The Way To Financial Freedom

Let’s start to explore the concept of living a conscious life that makes you fully content and fully happy on the way to your financial freedom.

0:00 – Introduction
0:19 – Financial freedom at 28, a bit of my story
4:18 – Not living life on autopilot
7:18 – What has worked for me so far
12:18 – Our Wildly Adventurous Life
15:55 – Don’t pin your hopes on financial freedom giving you happiness

Recommended Videos:

Losing Financial Freedom SUCKS! What It Felt Life For Me

What It Feels Like To Be Financially Free

Transcription:

Ryan 0:00
usually on this channel we talk about property investing personal finance achieving financial freedom all that good sort of stuff but in this episode i want to do something different and start to explore the concept of actually living a conscious life and living a life that makes you fully content and fully happy and the reason that i want to explore this in more detail is that i achieved financial freedom at the age of 28 or what i call pseudo financial freedom my businesses were earning enough money without me working that i didn’t need to work and so i spent probably about two years from 28 to 30 where i hardly worked at all and i was not rich in terms of the fact of i had a private jet and fancy cars not i did not have a fancy car at all but i did have a decent house i lived one straight back from the beach you could walk to the beach didn’t have to work so drive the kids to school then we’d go out for coffee and go to the beach and just kind of spend my days doing that do a bit of work when i felt like it and felt inspired to or when ben would call me up and say ryan we need to record some stuff i’d be like okay so i achieved that at 28 and i realized that financial freedom doesn’t make you happy and that was a big shock to me and a big shock to my system because for my life i had been pursuing this goal of financial freedom and while i didn’t consciously think okay financial freedom dang i’m going to be happy i think in the back in my mind or subconsciously that’s what i believed because when i achieved financial freedom and i wasn’t happy i was i was quite shocked about that and so for two years i explored a bunch of different things i hardly worked and explored okay what can make me happy what can make me feel fulfilled and tried a bunch of different things and eventually at least reached a place where i wasn’t depressed anymore i have suffered with depression anxiety eating disorders throughout my life and so i was so grateful for that time to reach a place where i’m like okay i kind of have an idea of how to manage my mental illness and not feel depressed anymore or not feel like i have an eating disorder anymore and so i’ve got to that so that was good but now i’m not financially free anymore i ended up getting myself into a bunch of debt went through a separation business went through a downturn at the same time so expenses jacked up income dropped dramatically built up debt pretty quickly in a period of a couple of months and i’m now climbing my way out of that so i’m no longer financially free and i’m working towards financial freedom again and i still think financial freedom is valuable and important but i feel what’s more important is actually living that conscious life and being happy in the life that you have and it’s something that’s not really talked about by a lot of people most people will talk about okay here’s how you get rich here’s how you build wealth and we do talk about that on this channel we talk about the strategies and how you can achieve it and that’s important financial freedom gives you choices which is great and you want to move towards that and if you’re looking for property tips there’s hundreds on the channel but what’s not really talked about by anyone is how do we actually achieve happiness on our journey towards that and i guess it is sorted out by people online but it’s something that i still haven’t worked out yet and no matter how many youtube videos i watch your podcast or listened to or books i read i’m still struggling to find that and so this is me actually opening up the conversation with you i don’t have answers i don’t have solutions in this video this is not me having worked it all out but this is you joining me on the journey this is us going on the journey together to work out okay let’s not pin all our hopes and our dreams on financial freedom and on a certain level of wealth let’s find it now yes let’s move towards financial freedom let’s move towards more wealth let’s move towards a better life but let’s find that happiness let’s find that purpose let’s find that contentment now and how do we go about doing that and so for me i guess the first way that i’ve been exploring this is actually consciously thinking about that and consciously exploring how can i move towards that how can i find more happiness more contentment more fulfillment in my life so what i feel like a lot of us do and what i did for a whole bunch of my life as well is that you kind of stumble through life you kind of go through life almost on autopilot living each and every day especially if you’re striving towards a goal if you’re like me and you’re striving towards that goal of financial freedom so much of what you do is in pure service to that goal

So for me financial freedom, it was like the work that I did was in service to that goal. And then when I wasn’t working, I almost felt bad, because I wasn’t moving towards that goal, which would create my happiness. Now, when I wasn’t working, I was spending time with my kids, or spending time with my wife, or spending time with my family, hanging out with friends going to the beach, going on holidays, you know, but in a way, and while I was kind of present in a lot of those moments, and I had some really good times, I feel like a lot of that time was just like, wasted in almost zombie mode of just like, Okay, this is what we need to do, we’re going to give the kids dinner, we got a bath and put them in bed. Now we’re tired, let’s watch some TV. Now we’ll go to bed sort of thing. And I just feel like so much of that time was wasted, where I could have been more present in the moment, or a lot of those times I was thinking about what am I going to do at work the next day or head on want to move towards my goals in work or working late at night, and thinking about that sort of stuff. And even since achieving financial freedom, for the last year and a half getting out of a debt hole, I was kind of in that position as well, where it’s like, rather than financial freedom, it’s like get in a position where I can afford to pay off my debt and live my life. And I finally got there now. So I feel like I’ve got the breathing space to explore this stuff again. Whereas when I was in that, it was just like all work. I’d go go, go, build up your income, build up your income, work hard, make ends meet until your income grows enough. And I’m kind of out of that position and can’t, I’m still in debt, but I’m paying it off and can afford to pay it off now. And still live my life. Not lavish by any sense of the imagination, but getting there. And so I think, for me thinking about, okay, how am I going to be happy? How am I going to be content? How am I going to find fulfillment in my life and in my work, because while I’m working towards financial freedom, now, I realized that financial freedom is not going to make me happy. And so I need to be happy along the way. Because when I achieve it, it’s just gonna be another day. And so what has worked for me so far, is firstly, just being extremely conscious and present in the moments that I mean, I’m by no stretch of the imagination perfect at this, I live in my head more than most people, I just have an overactive brain. And so I’m often thinking about things or pondering business or thinking about relationships or meaning of life, or whatever. So I spent more time in my head than most people. But actually making that conscious choice to Okay, step out of stop thinking about the future, stop thinking about the past, be here, be present in this moment, experience everything in this moment. And so whether that be right now, as I’m recording this video for you, it’s like when you start to tune in, and you start to be present, it’s like okay, feel your body feel the air around, you feel the floor beneath your feet, or what you’re sitting on, or the other night. I had done. It was yesterday, I had done all my work for the day, I plan to work late into the night, but finished everything early. and ended up coming over here. This is my partner’s place. And kids were in bed, and we were just lying on the couch and had nothing to do, we don’t really watch a lot of TV, we just kind of hang out. And it was hard for me to kind of like accept that.

But I got into the state where I’m like, Okay, I’m present in this moment. I’m enjoying this moment, and I’m enjoying being with you. And we had cuddles, we had conversation, we had a good night. And it was just relaxing. And that that act of being present can bring so much happiness and contentment to your life. And then by being present as well. You can then explore. Okay, what do I think is going to drive contentment for me? And so for me, I realized that money wasn’t the answer. Financial Freedom wasn’t the answer. And so for me, I found a lot of contentment in relationships, and in the relationships that I have in the people that I have in my life. It’s definitely something that I need to work on and build up because I’m a very introverted person. And so I don’t I gain energy being by myself, but I love having people in my life and high quality people in my life who stimulate me and who push me and who, you know, I can talk to about things. And so it’s like relationships are really important to me. And doing work that challenges me I found it is really important. So, at the moment, my goal is financial freedom again, through my business. But it is the challenge of trying to achieve that, that I enjoy. And I’m not sure if that’s like a bit too meta to talk about. But it’s like, I’m not pinning my hopes on financial freedom to create happiness. I know that financial freedom is good, that it’s going to give me more choices in my life. So it’s like, that’s a worthy goal to strive for. And I’m still striving for that goal. But I’m not expecting that goal to make me happy. And what I’ve actually discovered about myself through being financially free, and then losing it is that I enjoy a challenge in my life, I enjoy pushing myself, I enjoy learning, I enjoy optimizing, I enjoy being productive, those sorts of things, fire me up and make me feel alive. So I have that goal, which I think is a worthy goal. But it is the challenge that I enjoy. And so building up my business, building up my passive income through my business is a challenge that I absolutely love at the moment. And I’ve got websites that I run that I’m working on on property is one of them. And on property is one of my bigger ones. But I’ve got other ones that are quickly growing and catching up to it, and will probably exceed it in the future. But I’ve got things that I’m working on, and that I do the work and then I get to track it and see how it goes and then change my strategy based off that. And it’s this puzzle pieces that I’m trying to work out in order to get to financial freedom. And I get so much happiness out of those puzzle pieces and out of that challenge. And I found that for myself, you may be different, you might not love that challenge. I maybe I’m unique in that aspect. But I found happiness in that. So when I go to work every day, I it makes me feel alive. And I absolutely love it. Because of the challenge of Chief Financial Freedom. The articles that I write on some of my websites completely random. It’s not purpose driven articles, some of the stuff, some of them are product reviews and things like that. So it’s not like I’m changing lives with some of these articles. But that challenge, for me feels like it’s creating purpose in my life. And I feel like I’ve got purpose in my life. That combined with my family that combined with my relationships, is kind of making me feel contentment in the moment. And I’ve also got this idea that I’m kind of pondering and working on at the moment, which is this phrase that I call my wildly adventurous life or our wildly adventurous life. And it’s this idea that, like I talked about how I was kind of like in zombie mode, we we resolved and just float through life and, and flow through the days and one day bleeds into the next and we look back on the last year and all the days were so similar, that we can’t really remember them that well. But what if we were to live a wildly adventurous life, whether that be challenges in our work and in the work that we’re doing, or holidays that we have or adventures that we go on? Or whether we have wildly adventurous relationships and have passion in those relationships. That’s a big part of what makes my life so adventurous is my relationship with crystal and that other people in my life and it’s just like, that creates so much adventure in life because people are just so amazing. So that’s a part of it. But also what what it what are you doing day in day out? How can you inject bits of adventure into your day,

whether that be going waterfall hunting, like I love doing with my kids on the weekends, or whether that be going for a surf and enjoying the surf or walking out to the point or, you know, going exploring or trying new coffee or for me, like creating coffee and creating espresso has become adventurous for me that I’m deep diving into. Okay, how do you do this? How? How can you do it better? How can it you know and enjoying the flavors enjoying the taste enjoying the experience of it. Ben has his teas that he absolutely loves soda Simon they love tea. For me, it’s coffee and it’s like a taken something that’s benign, something that is boring and mundane. You know, each day we have our coffee or maybe you have a smoothie or a tea or you just drink water or whatever. But that experience could just be a need to wake up and have coffee. Or that experience can be adventurous and exciting and something that you get to explore. And so for me in coffee, I found something to explore and something. Again, it comes back to that challenge for me. It’s like I’m challenging myself to learn more about it, to understand coffee better, to make better coffee, and to explore the world of coffee and the flavors of coffee and different types and like I created this challenge for myself. I don’t have to do it. You don’t have to drink coffee like who cares it’s not purpose driven life right coffee doesn’t create purpose but for me in a way it does because i put challenge into it i’ve put enjoyment into it that i’m getting out of it and i get to share that with krystal as well she loves coffee too i make coffee i still make coffee for kelly and give when we trade the kids over i’ll give her coffee that she loves and other people like luxus kindy teacher i make her coffee as well and i’ll bring her coffee and so it’s like become a way that i enjoy my life but it’s also a way that i give back to people and the way i create challenge to so little bits of my life i’m kind of injecting that energy injecting that adventure into and so i call that concepts are wildly adventurous life and maybe that’ll be something that i’ll talk about more in the future maybe something that comes and goes who knows but on this journey of yes we want to achieve financial freedom but that if we’re doing it through property that might take 1520 years until we achieve financial freedom i don’t want you to be the same as what i was at 28 which is you pin your hopes on financial freedom creating happiness you get there and you’re not happy thank god i achieved that at 28 not at 68 because imagine achieving that at 68 being like finally i’m going to be happy and you’re like oh crap like i just wasted my whole life doing this so i want to help you avoid that it’s going to be a journey to financial freedom financial freedom is a worthy goal it gives us choices and allows us to do so many amazing things with our lives but we need to become the people we want to become along the way and live the lives that we want to live along the way we don’t need to wait until we’re financially free in order to be happy in order to live our best life we can do it on the journey and so that’s what i’m exploring now that’s on exploring with the idea of the wildly adventurous life and i hope that you’ll come along this journey and you’ll start thinking about it in your life and start exploring okay yes i want to buy a property yes i want to achieve financial freedom but ultimately i want to be happy i want to be my true self i want to be content in the life that i have and i want to live a great life and how can i do that along the way let’s not wait and pin our hopes on financial freedom creating happiness for us let’s create our own happiness and financial freedom is a goal we’re striving for anyway and we’re going to get there anyway but i guess what’s more important is actually our life and living the best life and bringing our best self to each and every day living consciously in a way that is in line with what we truly want and so yeah part of what i love about the two properties to financial freedom strategy is that it’s so simple that it can basically be automated especially if you hire pumped on property and they’re finding the properties for you they’re doing the negotiation they’re helping you build the granny flats

like so much has done for you but in the two properties to financial freedom strategy got that accumulation phase where you’re working hard and doing it but then so much of consolidation phase or paying off the debt is just you living your life and so i love that that strategy is a simple strategy to financial freedom but it also gives us so much room to breathe and so much room to focus on how am i going to live my best life how am i going to be happy in this life and look back on our life and feel content and not full of regret that we missed out on so many things so yeah so come on this journey with me keep striving towards financial freedom but don’t forget to find your happiness along the way i wish you the absolute best in your journey go ahead and check out my video that i did recently on what it feels like to lose financial freedom and also link out to the video i did on what it feels like to have financial freedom so you can check out kind of my thoughts around those two things go ahead check those out otherwise until next time stay positive